‘Inactive’ cadres worry
CPM

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, June 6: The CPM leadership has noted with “concern’’ in its preliminary assessment of the municipal poll results that cadres had accepted defeat much before the elections and largely remained inactive in the weeks leading up to the contest, sources said.

The leaders noted that even in cases where the leadership was active, the response from the cadres was “poor” although leaders of the stature of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee urged them during pre-poll meetings to motivate supporters.

At a state committee meeting at Alimuddin Street this morning, CPM leaders said they were “worried” because the party was still wondering how to get back on its feet before the next big test — the panchayat polls scheduled to be held next year — the sources said.

A CPM state secretariat member said: “For the past year, leaders had been speaking about going back to the people and re-forging links with them. They had warned against sulking in defeat. But that didn’t happen in most of the places where the civic elections were held. Our cadres by and large remained inactive. They seemed to have accepted defeat much before poll day.’’

The CPM leader said the district leadership had been asked to find out why the cadres remained “idle”.

According to a central committee leader, the CPM’s move to cash in on certain “unpopular’’ policies of the Mamata Banerjee government did not yield results.